What A Broken Army Really Looks Like
Posted by Ray Robison on 04.23.2007
Once again, the push is on in the media and by Democratic leaders to secure American defeat in Iraq. The claim is that America has lost the war and the evidence presented is a broken down American army. But what does a broken down army really look like?
Most of us are familiar to some degree with the military history of George Washington and his shoeless Continental Army hunkered down and starving at Valley Forge during the War of Independence. From that position, he would go on to rally his ragtag army to victory. But there are much more modern examples for us to draw from if we want to examine the issue of our military readiness in the context of related history.
A good place to start is the Korean War. One of the most glaring historical inaccuracies taught in most public schools regarding military history is that this nation kept a standing army in fighting shape since the First World War. Not so. The US's involvement in the Korean War, less than a decade after this nation's largest expeditionary military mobilization during WWII began with a surprise attack against a modest American contingent in South Korea. As North Korean tanks smashed into South Korea, the US Army began to rush armor to the peninsula. Or at least, it wanted to. The problem was, the US army didn't have many operational tanks.
To solve the problem, the US Army in Japan went to Pacific beaches and pulled rusting hulks from WWII battles into maintenance bays. There they refurbished them and sent them to Korea. At Fort Knox, Kentucky - the home of armor for the US army – soldiers went to memorial parks and pulled tanks from their pedestals and sent them to combat in Korea.
Now that is what a broken army looks like. Yet against a North Korean force that was vastly superior to the anti-Iraqi forces our military faces now, the US army prevailed and stopped its' advance. They did it with inferior equipment, soldiers with little training, and a tactical disadvantage that almost hurled them off the Peninsula as a starting point. Yet American forces rallied and pushed them back to where they remain today.
Close Air Support in Korea was extremely limited. Very few air strips in South Korea were fit for supporting the American fighter planes. Most of the fighter-bomber missions came from planes on aircraft carriers and those stationed in Japan. This long ingress left them vulnerable to NK fighters and ADA. The situation significantly reduced the availability of CAS to reinforce fast changing conditions on the ground. Now compare that to the multitude of American attack helicopters and fixed wing assets that act with autonomy in Iraq.
The American Apache and Cobra attack helicopters provide a fast, flexible weapons platform unimaginable to the US forces in Korea. Observation helicopters, high altitude spy planes, UAVs, and satellites provide an operational picture that enables the warfighter in Iraq to win force on force engagements at every instance in Iraq. US forces in Iraq have lost no battles. Think about that, US forces have lost no battles but Democrat leadership is claiming we have lost the war? Does that make any sense?
(For those of you inclined to believe the media hype that characterized the first battle of Fallujah as a loss, think again. The Iraqi government asked us to stop that battle to give them time to talk. Once the terrorists in Fallujah began to target key Iraqi provisional leaders, the Iraqis then asked the US forces to go in and clear it out, which they did masterfully. That was yet another attempt by the media to claim defeat in the face of victory.)
Some accounts of the Korean War tell us that US solders were so overwhelmed by North Korean fighters that they stacked their own dead around them for cover. In WWII, the Japanese army was so broken that at isolated encampments they began to eat allied prisoners. On D-Day in Normandy, Allied forces lost over 4,500 men…more in one day than in four years in Iraq. In WWII, Korea, and later in Vietnam we saw what broken armies really look like. To compare these conditions to America's army today just boggles the mind. American forces could certainly use a break. Some troops have had multiple deployments. But the Army is nowhere near broken.
Just so you know, here are a few of the tricks from the media-Democrat collusion to be aware of when you read such nonsense. First, start here America's Broken Down Media my article blasting apart the recent TIME article claiming the army is broken. But here are some other favorites of the media you need to be aware of:
Units have been back two or three times. Yes, but since personnel change, that doesn't mean it is the same people.
Many troops are on their second or third rotation. There are surely some troops for which this is true. The Marines have a seven month in country rotation. So it takes two rotations for them to equal one US Army rotation. Also, many soldiers volunteer to go back. But you will never here those details from the media.
Troops don't get to train on the equipment they fight with before they go. The military maintains pre-positioned armored vehicles around the world based on the concept that a tank in theater is no different from a tank at the US base. You don't need to train on the same tank, just a tank of the same model. They are all the same. This is a particular cynical accusation, since it exploits the public's perceptions through nothing more than word play.
Standards have dropped; soldiers no longer need a high school degree. It has long been standard for soldiers to either have a high school degree or a GED, the equivalency test. There has been no change to that policy.
The army is so short of bodies they are reevaluating medically discharged to send them back. Re-evaluation is a constant process for any medically sidelined soldier and it has always been so. No commander wants a guy on his team who is broke. Why would they? This charge is complete nonsense.
The main take away here is before you fall for these cute little word tricks from Defeatocrats and journalists, ask the soldiers.
STAY CURRENT